Intellectual Violence

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Growing up as kids Superman was the ultimate superhero. He was according to the popular phrase "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". In our mind he was one of our heroes, he had the ability to protect everyone and save the day. There wasn’t anything Superman wasn’t capable of doing. He was always able to come to the rescue and save the day. Then he would fly off into the sky and everybody would live happily ever after. But as adults we all know that he is a fictional character and there is no such thing as happily ever after. In everyday real life the role of Superman is played by parents. We have the responsibility of being our kid’s Superman. In their mind’s eye we are the super strong, we have the ability to make everything bad go away. They know once they tell us what is troubling them we will do everything possible to make it go away. As far as they are concerned Superman will come to save the day. But what happens when Superman isn’t able to save the day in their eyes. How will they respond to that revelation? Will it destroy the image their parent as a superhero in their eyes? How will they respond to the image of seeing their Superman with his cape ripped and costume in ruins? This image could be too much for them and their young minds. How do they respond to the concept of their hero not being perfect, of being incapable of coming to their rescue? The role and image we present to our children is of us being perfect. But in reality we truly know it is impossible to be perfect. But we try and force the illusion to our kids that we are perfect. We have recreated ourselves as a fictional character. A character that our kids are searching for.

When you see me smiling can you tell that I’m actually cryingThose jokes you see me telling are me crying out in painBut that’s not the image people envision when my face comes across their brainI’ve surrounded myself with a million people but I still feel so aloneCan’t they see the pain I’m in almost every single dayOr do they even care?It seems not one of them know the true me or even careSo I’ll continue to give the world what they perceive to be my smileBut in actuality is just the Tears of a Clown

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

In my Social Work with the Aging class on Monday I had to do a media presentation. I chose to do mine on the movie the Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholas. For those who don’t know the Bucket List is about two men from different social and economic classes, a billionaire and mechanic who come together and are roommates in a hospital room where they both have terminal cancer. The mechanic played by Morgan Freeman has created a list of things he wishes he had done before he dies. He throws the list out and Jack Nicholson finds the list and convinces him that they need to go ahead and do everything on the list before they both “kick the bucket”. There is more to the movie than my mini-synopsis details but I don’t want to go into too much detail. Watching the movie made me reflect back on my life and the things that I have done in my years up to this point. I have done a lot of things and accomplished a lot, however I feel as if I have underachieved. I haven’t maximized my full potential and have found myself to have had settled for less. So in the theme of the movie the Bucket List I want to ask myself if I had a short time to live and money wasn’t a problem what do I wish to accomplish before I leave and go to the hereafter.

1. Sky Dive – I have always wanted to jump from a plane. I have no idea why but it’s the adrenaline rush that has always intrigued me. At one point I was going to join the army so that I could get the airborne patch for jumping out of planes.

2. Ride a Motorcycle – I’ve always wanted to ride a motorcycle since I was a little kid. It always looked dangerous and exciting to me. I also wanted to design a hot ass helmet to go with my motorcycle. So I guess in order to ride a motorcycle I need to learn how to drive

3. Kiss Mary J Blige - There are only two famous people I would ever date, Mary J Blige and Theresa Russell. I have had a crush on Mary J Blige since she first came out.

4. Write a Movie - As a kid growing up I always wanted to write movies. If I had to write a movie in a certain time frame I would be able to do it.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

I know you’re out there, I can feel you now. I know you’re afraid, you’re afraid of us.you’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future, I didn’t come here to tellyou how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and I’m going to show these people what youdon’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world…without you, a world withoutrules and controls without borders or boundaries. A world…where anything is possible. Where we go from there…is a choice I leave to you – Neo (The Matrix)

I was talking to my boy Black the other day when he came to my house to cut my son’s hair. We were discussing the Georgetown vs Duke game. As he knows I hate the Blue Devils with a passion we were talking about the difference between athletic (Black) players and non-athletic (White) players. He felt that Jon Scheyer would make it in the league because he can shoot the ball. I told him that he may be able to shoot but the League is different, he is not strong enough to finish at the basket or get his shot off there. Look at JJ Redick he can’t get off on the regular and Scheyer isn’t better than him. Then Black made a statement that made me question his sensibility, he said that JJ Redick is going to be in the league 12 plus years. My mouth dropped I was shocked at this absurd statement my boy had to say. He continued on and said that Redick is a system player and in the right system he could be a star and able to get his shot off. Black then said that Redick is going to come to the Knicks and in that system he’s going to score 16 points a game. As I sat there listening to him rattle off all the reasons for why Redick will have a lengthy NBA career, I started to think that my boy had been kidnapped by aliens. Black turned around after he finished speaking and from the stunned look on my face he could see that I wasn’t buying what he was selling. Then he said the dumbest shit I ever heard in my life; “Redick isn’t like any other white boy. He got nigga is his game”. Damn I thought to myself immediately after he finished speaking, that is the dumbest shit I have ever heard. Ain’t no mother freakin way he just said that dumb ass shit. I said Black I know Redick can shoot but that’s his only trick and he doesn’t do that consistently. He’ll get a coaching job soon because as the older you get the less athletic you become, and like the rest of his melanin challenged colleagues he isn’t athletic now so his time is almost up. You can’t continue to do the same things in the league teams adjust to you and they shut that shit down. So your boy will be back in Cameron Hall sitting next to his coach soon. Our conversation started to lean towards the upcoming Super Bowl and who I was rooting for. I said I don’t know why you are even asking me that, I’m going with God. As if he didn’t hear my answer Black asked me again. I repeated myself and gave the same answer; I’m rooting for God son. Black gave me the puzzled look and then said what the hell are you talking about son. I’m talking about the Super Bowl and you are talking about God. I said my bad son I might be going a little too deep for you. I’m rooting for the team with the Christ Consciousness; they are going to win the Super Bowl. Black just looked at me and shook his head because he knew what was next; here you go with this shit he said. Now that I have your attention I say to him you know I’m rooting for the team that has the Christ Consciousness; you can’t beat God. He asked me who is the team with the Christ Consciousness none of the quarterbacks are black. I said the Christ Consciousness is a state of mind son. You have to gain knowledge of self to truly understand it but I’ll give you a clearer picture of it. As the quarterback’s of the teams are both white and that is an important part of the team. The quarterback represents the brain of the team, he controls the direction of the team and the team takes on the personality of the quarterback. It’s through the quarterbacks willpower and drive that the team wins. The quarterback is called an extension of the Head Coach. It is the head coach who instills in his team direction. In this case the head coach has the Christ Consciousness and that’s who I’m rooting for this weekend. You still haven’t explained to me what the Christ Consciousness is and what head coach has it Black said to me. The Colts head coach has the Christ Consciousness I say to him; it is through playing for a head coach who has the Christ Consciousness that Peyton has been able to reach his full potential. He had his best years playing for Tony Dungy; he won his first playoff game and his first Super Bowl playing for a black head coach. The Christ Consciousness was able to allow Peyton to develop the necessary tools to win and conquer professional adversity. Until he played under Dungy his career was plague by him coming up short in important games. Playing under Dungy he developed the power of understanding on how to carry his team to victory. He was able to discipline his mind to utilize imagination and visualization to get his team to believe in his ability to lead them to victory in every game they played. By listening to the word of God and obeying Peyton was able to channel Supreme Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding and learn how to command his team. That is going to be the difference in the game this weekend I told Black. He has learned to use the power of the Christ Consciousness and nothing can defeat that son. Black looked at me and shook his head then said, I can never get a straight answer from you. I’m talking to you about basketball and you start dropping science on me. I say to Black son science and math are everyday parts of the world we live in; you just don’t apply it enough. You know football is 80% mental and 20% physical. Once you conqueror the mental aspect of the game the physical aspect is easy. That’s why teams are afraid to allow too many black head coaches into the NFL, they know that black head coaches are able to bring out the full potential of their players and that will soon translate to them taking over coaching in the NFL and then them moving up into upper management and possibly ownership. They can’t allow that to happen, they have to limit the amount of black head coaches. After this weekend three of the last four Super Bowl champions will be coached by a Black head coach. Sports are just a microcosm of life, Supreme Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding help you reach your full potential. By utilizing your mind’s full potential you have the ability to conqueror anything. The powers that be can’t allow that. They can’t allow people of color to realize that they have the potential to take over not the world not just in sports. So at the end of the day I’m rocking with the team with the Christ Consciousness, always bet on Black son.